NBA ‘Dream Big’ to Celebrate Black History Month

In the African American audience, is it pretty much saturated at this point or is there still growth to be made in the African American community?

Sorrosa: There is absolutely growth to be made. So, 21% of our NBA fan base today are African American fans. Obviously, that significantly over indexes in composition of the US market which is about 12% African American. So, they’re a significant chunk of our business already, but there are definitely opportunities for growth in viewership and in attendance. African Americans make up 45% of all minutes viewed, but the percent of African Americans who watch our games can definitely move up and so can our attendance metrics.

So this is a case of doing good things like educating students on black history, but you’re also obviously looking to increase your fan base as well with these communities.

We are. At the end of the day, we have a business to run, but the most important part for us is to be able to connect with these communities in a meaningful way, so it’s not just a business metric today. It’s really building lifelong fans that we want to be a part of our family for the future, for years to come. If we just do it as a business initiative where we’re trying to make a number, fans see through that. Then they don’t connect with that. We really want to make sure that we build programs that are connecting with this audience and building affinity with this audience.